to offer the best he has to a
wealthy superior, though conscious that it is all too humble a gift to
find favor.

And Paula was not long undecided; she took the proffered gem and feasted
her glistening eyes with glad thankfulness on her recovered treasure.

Two days ago she had thought of it as defiled and desecrated; it had
gratified her pride to fancy that she had cast the precious jewel at the
feet, as it were, of Neforis and her son, never to see it again. So hard
is it to forego the right of hating those who have basely brought grief
into our lives and anguish to our souls!--and yet Paula, who would not
have yielded this right at any price a short time since, now waived
it of her own free will--nay, thrust it from her like some tormenting
incubus which choked her pulses and kept her from breathing freely. In
this gem she saw once more a cherished memorial of her lost mother, the
honorable gift of a great monarch to her forefathers; and she was happy
to possess it once more. But it was not this that gave life to the warm,
sunny glow of happiness which thrilled through her, or occasioned its
quick and delightful growth; for her eye did not linger on the large and
glittering stone, but rested spellbound on the poor gold frame which had
once held it, and which had cost her such hours of anguish. This broken
and worthless thing, it is true, was powerful to justify her in the
opinions of her judges and her enemies; with this in her hand she would
easily confute her accusers. Still, it was not that which so greatly
consoled her. The physician's remark, that there was no greater joy than
the discovery that we have been deceived in thinking ill of another,
recurred to her mind; and she had once loved the man who now stood
before her open to every good influence, deeply moved in her presence;
and her judgment of him had been a hundred, a thousand times too hard.
Only a noble soul could confidently expect magnanimity from a foe and
he, he had put himself defenceless into the power of her who had been
mortally stricken by the most fateful, and perhaps the only disgraceful
act of his life. In giving up this gold frame Orion also gave himself
up; with this talisman in her possession she stood before him as
irresistible Fate. And now, as she looked up at him and met his large
eyes, full of life and intellect but sparkling through tears of violent
agitation, she felt absolutely certain that this favorite of Fortune,
though he ha